"It's a way to communicate," Mayor Robert Myer said. His office is pushing an alert system that calls residents home and cell phones and sends text messages, instead of the old system that only called land lines.

"It's updating the records so that we can get to as many people as possible," Myer said. "We have a nuclear plant close to us and we run regular tests with a siren system that people are familiar with sometimes you get a little complacent with that siren ringing every month."

Only New Roads residents can sign up for the code red system either online or in person at city hall.

The system's been in place since 2009. But out of more than two dozen people News 2 talked to in New Roads on Friday only two knew about the system, and neither had signed up.

Myer couldn't tell News 2 how many residents have code red so far. But he did say he would like to see more.

"It's another tool for us to be able to communicate. It used to be the tool was police officers went and started knocking on doors and all that other stuff," he said.

The information given will not be sold or used for anything other than alerting emergency situations, according to Myer.

At the time of the interview, Myer did not know how much the new system cost.